Rich Bocchini spoke with the Orlando Sentinel about a number of wrestling topics. Here are some of the highlights:

Considering WWE:

“I had an interview with the Texans [in the NFL]. They didn’t hire me, but they said I was talented enough that I should be calling big-league sports somewhere. It was my wife who nudged me to ask [Booker T] about WWE, because even though it would mean moving to Orlando, she could see I was miserable and needed a change.”

Working with Dusty Rhodes:

“I loved to pick Dusty’s brain on big-picture stuff. He gave me confidence. There were a lot of kids learning promos who were scared to death, but if he saw you worked hard and had passion, he would get behind you. He trusted both me and Corey Graves (who came up together) to do more and more, and that was huge.”

Independent wrestling compared to WWE:

“A lot of indie wrestling is the hipster crowd that’s maybe into Star Wars, comics and craft beer. I’m a little older, but I consider myself one of them. Every decent-sized city now has one craft brewery, if not four, and people want to support the local brand. It feels like they can make it their own. That’s what indie wrestling is it’s craft wrestling. It caters to the fan that doesn’t want the bigness of WWE, and the indies are small enough that they can really listen to what people want on a more personal level.”